Characterization of spatial luminance noise in stereoscopic displays for breast imaging

Abstract

Stereoscopic displays are being considered for 3D breast imaging applications. Characterization of the physical properties of the display devices in terms of parameters of relevance for medical imaging tasks is needed. Among the set of relevant characteristics of stereoscopic displays, luminance noise introduced by the device has not been studied so far. We present two methods for measuring spatial noise in stereo displays, one visual and one quantitative, and report a comparison between them. We have applied both methods to a stereo-mirror display. The visual method is based on the TG18-AFC pattern. The quantitative method relies on the evaluation of the noise power spectrum (NPS) using high resolution images acquired with a photometric CCD camera. Both methods were tested on different stereo display configurations. The visual results show higher variability among observers compared to the 2D display mode. The NPS shows peaks corresponding to the pixel and sub-pixel structure. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.